1. Collegium best system, but needs tweaking: Lokur

Retired Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur on Wednesday said he was disappointed that the Collegium’s resolution to elevate Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Rajendra Menon as apex court judges was not put up in the public domain.

Justice Lokur was a member of the five-judge Supreme Court Collegium which had on December 12 last year recommended the names of the sitting Chief Justices of Delhi and Rajasthan High Courts for elevation to the Supreme Court.

Ten days after his retirement on December 31, a newly constituted Collegium decided to drop the two names and instead elevated Delhi High Court judge Sanjiv Khanna and Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Justice Dinesh Maheshwari by superseding over 30 senior judges.

2. Goyal gets additional charge of Finance

The government on Wednesday announced it has given Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal the additional charge of the Ministry of Finance while Arun Jaitley recovers his health.

“The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, hereby directed that during the period of indisposition of Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister, the portfolios of Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs held by him, be temporarily assigned to Shri Piyush Goyal, in addition to his existing portfolios,” the government said in a statement. The statement added that, as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Jaitley would be designated as a Minister without portfolio during the period of his indisposition or till the time he is able to resume work.

With just about a week left for the presentation of the Vote on Account on February 1, Mr. Goyal’s appointment as the Finance Minister makes it extremely likely that he will present it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jaitley, who is currently in the U.S. for medical treatment, has undergone surgery at a hospital in New York on Tuesday, sources said. He has been advised at least two weeks rest by the doctors, the sources added. This is the second time Mr. Goyal has taken over from Mr. Jaitley due to the latter’s health.

3. Oral mentions in SC will soon be history

The Supreme Court is drafting new guidelines that would help ensure that urgent cases automatically come up before a Bench for hearing within four days of their being filed, obviating the need for lawyers to appear before the Chief Justice of India to orally mention their cases for urgent listing.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday informed the crowded courtroom that new norms had been settled by which urgent cases would automatically come up before a Bench for hearing.

Oral mentioning is a convention by which lawyers circumvent the long-winded filing procedures and make a direct appeal to the CJI, who is the court’s administrative head and master of the roster, for early hearing.

4. Governor Malik gets a fourth adviser

Skandan Krishnan, a retired IAS officer of the 1982-batch, was on Wednesday appointed as the fourth adviser to and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, an official spokesman said.

Former IAS officers Khurshid Ahmad Ganai and Kewal Krishan Sharma and former IPS officer K. Vijay Kumar are the other three advisers. The appointment of Mr. Krishnan comes over a month after B.B. Vyas resigned from the post in December last year on the eve of his appointment as the member of the UPSC.

The Union Home Ministry had on Tuesday approved the appointment.

5. ISRO to launch military satellite tonight

Just before midnight on Thursday, Indian Space Research Organisation’s first mission of 2019 will put into space a 130-kg military imaging satellite, Microsat-R.

ISRO has shied away from sharing details of the spacecraft or its uses as it does routinely each time during its missions; except to say the satellite would be placed within 15 minutes after take-off in a polar orbit 274 km away from Earth.

This is much lower than any of its civil Earth observation spacecraft, which fly pole to pole over the globe at between 400 km and 700 km.

According to information obtained from different sources Microsat-R and its payload come assembled from a handful of laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and is meant for military use. The satellite was “assembled outside and ISRO only interfaced it” with its own systems and the launch vehicle, just as it treats any customer satellite.

PSLV-C44 will be launched around 11.30 p.m. from the older First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. For its part, ISRO is experimenting on two aspects of the vehicle. One is to reuse a waste stage.

Amid the 28-hour countdown for the launch, ISRO Chairman K.Sivan said the PS4-Kalamsat experiment would be short-lived.

It would start about 1.5 hours from take-off and last about 14 hours until Friday midday. Later experiments with PS4 will be improved gradually, he said.

For the third time in ISRO’s recent history, the mission team is slated to cut off and restart the PS4 engine twice over a flight lasting around 100 minutes.

ISRO’s pre-launch brochure said, “In PSLV-C44, the fourth stage (PS4) of the vehicle will be moved to higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments.”

The other experiment with the launcher PSLV-C44 vehicle will be a new third variant having two strap-on boosters. Called the PSLV-DL, D standing for demonstration, it ranges between the older two variants.

6. India conducts ‘largest coastal security drill’

Ten years after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, India conducted its largest coastal defence drill, Exercise Sea Vigil, to test its preparedness along the entire 7,516.6 km-long-coastline and exclusive economic zone of the country.

The first of its kind exercise was conducted on January 22 and 23 and coordinated by the Navy.

“Exercise Sea Vigil aims to comprehensively and holistically validate the efficacy of the measures taken since 26/11. It aims to simultaneously activate the coastal security mechanism across all 13 coastal States and Union Territories,” the Navy said in a statement.

This involves the evaluation of critical areas and processes, including inter-agency coordination, information sharing and technical surveillance. “Multi agency audit and identification of gaps, shortfalls and incorporation of lessons learnt into Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are also the desired outcomes,” the Navy stated.

Post 26/11, the Navy was designated as the agency responsible for overall maritime security, including offshore and coastal security, while the Coast Guard was designated as the agency responsible for coastal security in territorial waters.

A multi-tiered patrol and surveillance mechanism with focus on technical surveillance and augmenting Maritime Domain Awareness through the coastal radar chain was adopted.

7. Sedition and its discontents

What does Section 124-A of the IPC say?

The section deals with the offence of sedition, a term that covers speech or writing, or any form of visible representation, which brings the government into hatred or contempt, or excites disaffection towards the government, or attempts to do so. It is punishable with three years in prison or a life term. “Disaffection”, it says, includes disloyalty and feelings of enmity. However, it also says expressing disapproval of government measures or actions, with a view to getting them changed by lawful means, without promoting hatred or disaffection or contempt towards the government will not come under this section.

What is its origin?

Sedition was introduced in the penal code in 1870, a decade after the Indian Penal Code came into force. It was a colonial law directed against strong criticism of the British administration. Its most famous victims included Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi called it “the prince among the political sections of the IPC designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen”.

Is it constitutionally valid?

Two high courts had found it unconstitutional after Independence, as it violated the freedom of speech and expression. The Constitution was amended to include ‘public order’ as one of the ‘reasonable restrictions’ on which free speech could be abridged by law. Thereafter, the Supreme Court, in Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar (1962) upheld its validity. At the same time, it limited its application to acts that involve “intention or tendency to create disorder” or incitement to violence. Thus, even strongly worded remarks, as long as they do not excite disloyalty and enmity, or incite violence, are not an offence under this section.

8. Circadian rhythm

Biology

This refers to the 24-hour cycle that influences the various physiological processes that take place within the human body. Among others, the circadian rhythm most commonly determines the hours that a human being is asleep or awake during a day. Other important things like the metabolic rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and the secretion of various hormones are also influenced by the circadian rhythm. It is believed that disturbances to the circadian rhythm, which is seen by some scientists as an adaptation to conditions prevalent on earth over a long period of time, due to changes in a person’s lifestyle, for instance, can lead to adverse effects on the human body.

9. Cabinet okays MoU between India, Kuwait

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Kuwait for cooperation on the recruitment of domestic workers.

The move is likely to benefit around three lakh Indian workers deployed in Kuwait, including about 90,000 female domestic workers.

“The MoU provides a structured framework for cooperation on domestic workers related matters and provides strengthened safeguards for Indian domestic workers, including female workers deployed in Kuwait,” an official statement said. The MoU is initially valid for a period of five years and incorporates provision for automatic renewal. Under this MoU, a joint committee will also be set up to follow up the implementation.

10. Cabinet decides to strengthen northeast autonomous councils

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment to increase the financial and executive powers of the 10 autonomous councils in the Sixth Schedule areas of the northeast.

The amendment would impact a population of about 1 crore tribals living in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, according to the Centre.

The Finance Commission would be mandated to recommend devolution of financial resources to the councils, the government said in an official statement.

Till now, the autonomous councils have depended on grants from Central Ministries and the State governments for specific projects.

As per the proposed amendment, at least one third of the seats would be reserved for women in the village and municipal councils in the Sixth Schedule areas of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura. The amendment also provides for transfer of additional 30 subjects, including the departments of Public Works, Forests, Public Health Engineering, Health and Family Welfare, Urban Development and Food and Civil Supply to Karbi Anglong Autonomous Territorial Council and Dima Hasao Autonomous Territorial Council in Assam.

11. Panel rejects plea to form medical board

The Justice (retd.) A. Arumughaswamy Commission has dismissed Apollo Hospital’s application to form a medical board to look into the testimonies provided to the Commission by a number of doctors on the treatment administered to former CM Jayalalithaa.

Sources said that the petition was dismissed on the grounds that it was a ‘belated application’ and that it was made with an attempt to scrap the evidence already recorded at the Commission by various doctors.

12. Missile’s range does not violate INF treaty: Russia

MOSCOW

on Wednesday insisted that the range of a missile system that has prompted Washington to say it will withdraw from a key Cold War arms treaty is allowed under the agreement.

Standing next to the system, he detailed the missile’s features to assembled foreign media and foreign military officials. Russia has long denied it violates the treaty but Wednesday’s briefing was the first time it has offered details of the missiles in question.

Washington has said it would not be satisfied with Moscow’s offer of a “static display” of the missiles, because they would not show whether they breach the treaty. The U.S. says the missile system should be destroyed in a verifiable manner if Russia wants to keep the INF alive.

13. Cabinet gives nod to set up GST Appellate Tribunal

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the creation of a National Bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), which would serve as the forum of second appeals to do with the applicability of GST, and will also be the first common forum of dispute resolution between the Centre and the States.

The National Bench of the Appellate Tribunal, to be situated in New Delhi, will be presided over by its president. It will consist of a technical member from the Centre and a representative of the States. “This is part and parcel of the GST provisions,” L. Badri Narayanan, Partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, said. “They had to create the Tribunal. The way they had envisaged it was that assessment would be done by people below the rank of Commissioner, and the appeals would be with the Commissioner. The Commissioner (Appeals) could then go to the Tribunal. They have now approved the setting up of that Tribunal.” Chapter XVIII of the CGST Act provides for an appeal and review mechanism for dispute resolution under the GST regime. Section 109 of this chapter empowers the Centre to constitute, on the recommendation of the GST Council, an appellate tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by the Appellate Authority.

The government, it is learnt, was initially planning an appellate tribunal in each State. However, the idea was discarded in favour of one at the national level following the experience with the various state-level advance ruling authorities, which often gave conflicting judgments.

The creation of the National Bench would involve a one-time expenditure of ₹92.50 lakh.

14. IRDAI mulls enhanced regulatory setup for SIIs

An enhanced regulatory framework for insurers who are systemically important for the insurance sector in the country is on the cards.

As a first step in this direction, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has constituted a committee that will not only facilitate in identifying the Systemically Important Insurers (SIIs), but also recommend enhanced supervision measures for them.

The insurance sector has grown exponentially in the last 15 years and a few of the insurers have a sizeable market share and interconnected with other financial institutions as well. Stating this, the order constituting the committee said that IRDAI was of the view that there was a need to identify such SIIs. The regulator also wants to put in place a system of enhanced regulatory framework for them.

IRDAI member (finance and investment) Pravin Kutumbe will chair the committee that will have six other senior officials as members, including one as convenor. The committee has been given six months to submit its report.

15. Australia looks to invest A$100 billion in India

The Australian government has committed to invest A$100 billion in India and Tamil Nadu will be one of the key States her country would be looking to invest in, Susan Grace, the Australian Consul General said.

“Currently, our investments account for only one fifth of the target and we are looking to invest a lot more,” she said at a press conference during the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet 2019. An announcement on the investment would be made in three months, Ms. Grace said.

She also said one of the key areas Australia could help India was education.

“Australia is the fourth largest country having top 100 universities, after the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Already, there are 70,000 Indian students in Australia,” Ms. Grace said.

16. Apurvi Chandela shoots gold

Olympian Apurvi Chandela won a gold medal and a bronze in women’s air rifle in the Meyton Cup international shooting here.

Apurvi won the first competition with 252.2, as she beat qualification topper Aneta Brabcova (630.6) of the Czech Republic by 0.6 point. The scores of the both the shooters on the last two shots were identical at 10.5 and 10.7.

Apurvi’s earlier lead of 0.6 came handy after the Czech had reduced the gap from 1.3.

Current Affairs is an important GK topic for UPSC, NDA, CDS, AFCAT, Air force X & Y Groups, SSC, and other competitive exams. Every year in UPSC, SSC and Bank there are few questions from Current Affairs